Indigenous domain names in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Since the inception of the domain name system, indigenous peoples have been overlooked in the assignment of identifying top-level domains (TLDs). In the 2012 international roll out of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), indigenous peoples were again neglected in both terms of identity and linguistic representation.

This presentation will report on the world’s first research into indigenous domain names as well as use of the Māori language on the internet. The research project looks at indigenous domain names use and community of interest perceptions of indigenous domains in Aotearoa/New Zealand, where three of the world’s five indigenous domain names are in use (.iwi.nz, .maori.nz and .māori.nz).

Topics under discussion include the preference among Māori to use .com addresses, macrons and Māori language in domain names, and a comparative analysis of bilingual signs and websites by government department.